Opening Doors...

Archie's Dad signing in again. Much quicker than a year and a half this time. Here is a video I took of Archie opening his bedroom door. Much to his parents chagrin, Archie has learned to open doors on his own. This means that we really have no way of keeping him out of any of the more "dangerous" rooms.

Phone Call Baby Style

So we got a new flipphone for Christmas. It's taken us a little while, but we've got it working. It's actually fairly easy to upload videos to the blog. So while we're out and about over the next couple weeks we've set up our first few videos to be on the blog.


Archie loves to talk. Recently he's taken to talking on the telephone. Apparently he wasn't too happy with the response he got, because he hung up on them!

Sliding is Super Part II

This is Archie's Dad posting to the blog for the first time. Some of you may remember Archie's first visit to the slide last year. Well, while Mom was sick(she's all better now!) I decided to take him out for Round 2. As you can see from the above picture, Archie had a good time!

While we were out Archie decided to strut his stuff and climb the playground stairs all by himself. Check out the action series below:

Ahh Sweet Success!

Signing off for now. Seeing that Archie just turned 1 year and 4 months old, hopefully I won't wait another year and a half before I post again.

Ice Festival Fun!

Our city is renowned for the largest (supposedly) ice festival in the world! It is something to behold. While I have never personally been, I feel like I get 90% of the benefit and none of the arctic chill every time I drive by it in the bus! Hunter has been twice now so I'll post some of the pics.

They have really cool ice slides (one of Hunt's favorites)!

Hunt and Hanzhu having an iceball fight? (Do they have helmets?)

The coffee cafe

The ever popular winter candy: sugared sour fruit on a stick (not my favorite)

Benjamin went to the festival with Hunt last year!

Olympic crazy! See the rings on top of the building?

Ice city!

Another pretty building

Are you ready to try your hand at climbing the ice wall?

Icy Christmas trees! How pretty!

I must compliment the guys on getting such nice nighttime pics of ice and snow! Good job!

Archie's Second Christmas!

The frigid weather puts us in a Christmas spirit! Merry Christmas from Archie!

Archie had a lot of fun playing with his Nativity set and trying to decorate the tree!


Oops, Mama and Daddy forgot to use the camera on Christmas morning, but here's a pic we snapped as an afterthought. Me-maw and Papa sent our entire family matching snowmen pajamas!

Merry Christmas! (a little late)

There's nothing to get you in the Christmas mood like a Christmas party! Although Hunter and I make it our tradition to host at least one party every year (usually in our home), this was our biggest yet. Below are a fraction of our guests - mainly college students.

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Musical chairs can get very competitive!
Another group shot!

Doorprizes are always fun! (I was kind of disappointed I wasn't eligible to win the cool Yao Ming book cover!)

We took a lot of pics!

One of my friends knitted this cool scarf and hat for Archie! Great gift!

Our language teachers!

My absence from blogging...

It's been a long two or so weeks since Christmas. Some college students from America came and we had lots of fun. I have lots of pics sitting in folders on my desktop that I'll try to get around to posting soon, but first I'll share some pix of people I've been VERY grateful for the past week or so and the story of my adventure...

Right after the students left, I came down with a nasty stomach bug. After an entire day of not being able to eat or drink anything, which I figured wasn't particularly good for my little Peanut, I called my friend, Emda, who's a student at the best medical college in town, and she told me to come on over. Early the next morning, I boarded the crowded bus and took my place standing near the back. Noticing my pained looking appearance, the bus helper yelled, "She's going to throw up, and gave me her seat." But, by the time I'd transferred buses downtown and ridden for another hour or so, I'd really had more than I could take. Fair skin is considered beautiful here, but when my friend met me at the bus stop, she thought the whiteness was a little over the top and didn't particularly like the green tinge either.

Our first stop was her oral surgery professor's office (Dr. Zhang). The professor then whisked me away to the office of her stomach doctor friend who suggested that I could possibly wait another day before treatment and should try going home and eating rice porridge. As we left the stomach doctor's office, Dr. Zhang and her student consulted deciding there was no way I could safely make it home in my current condition. On return to her office, she had me sit at the nurse's station where Emda explained they were preparing an IV of rehydration fluids. Emda was great and never left my side the whole time! During the second IV, I finally started feeling a little better and after demonstrating that I could eat a little bread and drink a few sips of water, Emda went out in search of a taxi so I could make it home more safely. After 30 minutes of searching in vain, we conceded there was none to be found and she escorted me home on the bus lest I should not be able to cope.

Fast forward several days where I have not been able to get off the sofa for more than a few minutes at a time. It's now Saturday and Hunter has to go out. I don't think I can manage with the baby for the afternoon so I call my friend/Hunter's language teacher, who agrees to come make rice soup for me and watch the baby so I can continue laying on the sofa. Despite how great she was, by that night I'd had as much as I thought I could take, so I gave Emda another call.

The next day, I very smartly called and pre-arranged a taxi and off I set again. This time, Emda's classmate and my friend Christina meets me and off we set again. Since the stomach doctor was in surgery during my arrival, Dr. Zhang let me lay in the bunk beds of the nurses lounge until she was available. The result of the consultation was that my stomach would eventually get better and...Dr. Zhang whisked me away again for another IV. This time, I had two nurses as both Emda and Christina attentively stayed by me making sure I stayed covered by the blanket if I turned over and helping me sit up if I wanted to drink something. (Hospital beds don't have automatic controls here.) By the time I left, almost all of my friends at the medical college had come to see me and wish me well so I really felt the blessings of friendship.

The next day, I went to our school clinic and the nurse gave me yet another round of IVs, but by that afternoon, I was able to start eating and drinking again so thankfully it was the last day of treatment. I guess things I have learned from this experience are that good friends are a blessing and to be sensitive to the needs of others. Since I couldn't really even take care of myself, I was really depending on them, which made me realize I need to be even more attentive to Archie (on his time table not mine) when he's hungry or has another need since he can't help himself either. I am, of course, also extremely grateful to Hunt who has cared for the baby and kept the house running while I've been sick (and watched the baby while I went to the hospital).

Our friends from the medical college at a Thanksgiving party in our home
l-r on sofa: Christina, Emda, Dr. Zhang (with son in lap), in pink is Eva who was also a big help

Our school nurse who has now taken care of all of our family members at one time or another. Remember Hunt's IV story?